1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control device, a display control system, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional web browsers are installed in devices, such as personal computers (PCs), smartphones, and tablet computers, having various display screen sizes, and each displays web pages on a display screen thereof. A window size (screen size) of a web page displayed by a web browser on a display screen of a PC can be changed by a user operation. Besides, settings such as a font size of a character included in a web page are set to various values depending on a type of a web browser, and can also be changed by a user operation.
In this manner, layout of a web page is changed depending on display environment (display screen size), and thus, a user may be provided with a web page having a layout that is not intended by a web page author. For this reason, it is desired to perform web page creation so that a web page having a layout intended by a web page author is displayed without depending on display environment.
As techniques to create a web page that looks similar regardless of a display screen as mentioned above, there are known layout techniques such as a “fixed width layout” and a “liquid layout”. There is also known a technique in which, in the case of displaying a web page created for PCs, on a display screen having a relatively small screen size, such as a display screen of a smartphone or a tablet computer, an entire web page for PCs is reduced in size, and the web page reduced in size is displayed.
However, there has been a problem in the fixed width layout that, when a screen size of a web page is smaller than a screen size assumed by a web page author, vertical and/or horizontal scroll bars are displayed, and thus, ease of use is significantly reduced.
In the liquid layout, sizes of areas to place a text, an icon, and the like are changed depending on a screen size. For this reason, there has been a problem that a web page having a layout intended by a web page author is not displayed in some cases.
There has also been a problem that, when an entire page is reduced in size because of not being able to be accommodated in a browser screen, a character, an icon, or the like is reduced in size so that it is difficult for a user to read the character or to press a button.
In a portable device such as a smartphone, a web page that is poor in operability and/or visibility is displayed in some cases, such as a web page generated by either of layout techniques described above, or a web page having overall size is reduced. In such cases, a user generally performs an enlarging operation and/or a moving operation, such as scrolling, to display, on a display screen, a portion that the user intends to view or operate.
However, for example, in the case of displaying a web page on an operation display panel of a printer, it is not desirable to require a user operation like in a smartphone or the like, but it is desired to display a web page with superior operability and visibility.
To this end, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-277120 discloses a technique in which, when, in order to display a web page for PCs on an operation display panel, a web browser of the operation display panel displays the web page stored in a server external to a device, the web browser analyzes the web page, and dynamically generates Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) data, a cascading style sheet (CSS), and a JavaScript (registered trademark) file so as to make the web page suitable to be displayed on the operation display panel.
However, the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-277120 also has had a problem that in some cases, when the web page is displayed on the operation display panel, a web page having a layout different from that intended by a web page author is displayed, and a web page that is poor in operability and visibility is displayed.
There is a need to provide a display control device, a display control system, and a computer program therefor that make it possible to perform display of display on a display device information with superior operability and visibility, regardless of a screen size of the display device.